Photograph
by LucyLuna
Summary: Following Severus's death, Eileen and Essie take it upon themselves to clean out their father's office. AU. Part XIV of Family Branches. One-shot.


_Photograph_

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Eileen and Essie worked in silent efficiency. Early in the morning, they had tasked themselves with cleaning out their father's office and potions lab so Edie wouldn't have to. So far, they had done rather well. They had finished the potions lab before lunch and Darla had promised when they stopped by the family's quarters to eat, once she put Severus down for a nap, she would come by to help with cleaning out Sev's office. Eileen didn't need to check her pocket watch to know Darla would be by soon as long as Severus hadn't gotten gas from his own lunch.

Maybe when Darla arrived she would be able to help her sort Sev's books into the crates they brought. Eileen felt at something of a loss looking at them all. She didn't know which were valuable, and which were not. Or if they should even be split up by their worth. Perhaps she should be putting them into their crates by subject? And how did she know which they should keep for their family and which she should give to Hogwarts's library?

She was pulled from her contemplations when she heard Essie slam a drawer of their father's desk closed.

"Do you think Sev loved Darla more than us?" her sister asked before Eileen could so much as turn her head in the younger's direction in question.

"What makes you think that?"

Essie, who was sat in their father's old desk chair, held up an old photo for her to scrutinize. It was a picture of their father and Darla. He was young. Far younger than she could ever remember him being, yet, somehow, he was. And Darla. How could their aunt ever have been so tiny? Even now that Eileen had outgrown her aunt by several centimeters and Essie was not far off from doing the same Darla still felt so much larger – _greater_ – than herself.

Eileen put the most recent book she had been leafing through down in one of the crates with some others they were planning to take back to their family quarters rather than give to the library. Walking over to the desk, she took the picture from Essie's unresisting fingers. Wistfully, she traced the grinning face of her little aunt. She was atop Sev's shoulders, blowing a kiss at whoever was taking the photo. As for their father… He looked rather amused by what was happening around him and wore the smirk of someone not yet broken by the world.

Her father's childhood friend hadn't been murdered yet, nor had he had to place her son with strangers. Sev hadn't even had her or Lottie at this point, let alone lost her twin. Their father hadn't been put through the trials of Harry's Hogwarts years or burdened with the tasks from Dumbledore that would someday kill him either. In this picture, in the moment it was taken, Sev had possibly thought the world was his to claim, not the other way around.

Eileen ached for this young man and for her little aunt the same way she ached for herself, her sisters, aunt, mother, and even baby Severus now. Life had been so unkind to them all. She only hoped it could improve for those of them remaining here on out. Dabbing at her eyes with her sleeve, she gave the photo back to Essie.

"No," she answered.

Her sister seemed both alarmed and unappeased by her answer. "What's wrong? Why are you crying? Are you lying to make me feel better, Eileen? He doesn't have any pictures of the rest of us tucked away anywhere in here. Believe me, I checked."

She chuckled at Essie's inquisition and her mulish belief that their father could have possibly ever loved Darla more than he loved them. Severus may have been more lenient with Darla than them in some ways, but she knew it wasn't because he loved them less. (In the past, Edie had mused it had to be with them being siblings, instead of father and daughter, like them, and Sev not wanting to ever remind Darla of their father if he could help it).

"You are such a dense girl, Essie," she said while her tears ran freely down her cheeks. "Darla's presence in that photo is just happenstance. He kept it to remember there was a time when life didn't feel like a dead end to him. Look at Sev, he's not worried about us, or Harry, or Hogwarts, or his students, or the future of the world. He's _free_ and just present in the moment the photo's captured!"

Essie took it back and stared for a long time at the picture. Finally, she put it face-down on their father's desk and leaned back in his chair. Essie stared at her with Sev's eyes and asked with a haunting light to them, "Do you think he regretted having us? Taking in Darla after their parents died?"

Eileen went around the desk and sat down on top of it and reached for her sister's hands. Once she had the cool, slim digits in her own, she made sure to hold tight while she assured her, "No. Edie told me we were the balm to all of the pain life inflicted on him. We made him a better, happier man. Sev may have never envisioned much of a future for himself after the war, but he certainly did for us and Edie says it's what got him up in the mornings during the worst of the Carrows' reign here at Hogwarts. He wanted us to live on and experience the years of the happiness he only ever knew for but a handful of moments." She tipped her head at the photo. "Like in that one with Darla."

Her sister's gaze darted all over her face, looking for deceit, before meeting her eyes once more. "How do you know Edie's not just saying pretty things to make you – us – feel better?"

She sighed and let go of one of her sister's hands. Unlike Eileen, her sisters and Darla's had never regained all of the faith they had in Edie from before Lottie's death. That summer where Darla broke all the rules and brought Harry into their lives had changed them all, and not necessarily for the better. Eileen used her now free hand to tuck an errant strand of hair behind Essie's ear as she told her, "Our mother is a wise woman. One who doesn't lie, either." She felt her lips pull upward in that crooked way she'd learned from Lottie when they were only infants. "I would know. I'm quite adept at deception."

Essie stared at her, lips puckered. "You're a Ravenclaw."

Eileen began to giggle. Oh, how she adored Essie. Through all of the trials and tribulations they'd faced together in the last seven years, somehow, she'd managed to retain some of her naivety. "I love you, Essie," she said. "Don't you ever change."

"I love you too," her sister replied with great sincerity, though, her mouth was still pursed and her confusion seemed greater than before. "And… I suppose I can give that a try."

She laughed harder and leaned in to envelop Essie in a tight embrace. As Eileen expected, she returned it, even if she didn't quite understand where all of Eileen's sudden affection was coming from. Perhaps her sister knew better than to question it. Eileen wasn't a feely person on the best of days and Essie probably didn't want her to stop by ruining the moment with her (sometimes) doltish questions.

"Oh dear, what have you two found?" their aunt called from behind, tone worried.

With great reluctance, Eileen peeled herself off Essie and smiled at Darla – knowing all the while she had to look a sight with the tear-stains on her cheeks. "It's nothing. Here, why don't you come and look at this picture of you and Sev we found?"

"I never knew you were so little," Essie piped in, seemingly understanding what had transpired between them was best left private.

Darla looked between the two of them with no small amount of suspicion, but, as it often did, her curiosity got the better of her as she swept forward to accept the picture Essie held out for her to see.

When she turned it over and saw the image of her and Sev, her face softened and she began to run her thumb in small, loving circles around her and Essie's father's countenance. "I remember taking this photo," she murmured. "It was right after Edie got her first camera…"

Eileen grabbed Essie's hand and shared a smile with her sister as the two of them settled in to listen to Darla's story.

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